Climate Action
What do people mean when they say ‘climate action’?
They mean the efforts we can take, individually and collectively, to combat climate change and its impacts. By taking action on climate, we hope to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its impacts.
Mitigation = people and society work to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – for example, by driving much less and reducing fossil fuel consumption (reducing the ‘source’ of CO2) or by planting more trees (which act as ‘sinks’ for CO2, ie carbon suckers!).
Adaptation = we can also adjust how human and natural systems respond to current or expected climate change impacts, to reduce the harm of these impacts and potentially obtain some benefits too – for example, by building homes that are flood-safe (reducing harm) or by introducing new crop species into farm areas as the climate changes (potential benefit).
Big or small, each climate action we take can make a difference. You can take action on climate in lots of ways too! We can help by taking individual action, working together to take collective action, and by calling for larger-scale systemic change, for example, by governments and world leaders.
Climate action is already happening all over the world.
For Teachers
Class Activity
How can we Cool the School? Ask your students to think about the main ways that your school contributes to climate change. They may wish to consider:
See our example (5mb pdf) for some ideas.
How can we Cool the School? Ask your students to think about the main ways that your school contributes to climate change. They may wish to consider:
- How much electricity is used?
- How is waste being managed?
- What kind of transport is taken to and from school?
- What ways there might be to store carbon at the school
- How much do people at the school talk and think about climate change?
See our example (5mb pdf) for some ideas.
Who is behind Curious Climate Schools? Curious Climate Schools is run by climate change and education researchers at the University of Tasmania. It’s funded by the Tasmanian Climate Change Office, the University’s College of Science and Engineering, and the University’s Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS). Curious Climate Schools builds on the first successful Curious Climate project which answered climate questions in communities around Tasmania.
